PBS Newshour Online

Funny story: Back in October, I started building a little Django-powered web app that ultimately became Tools for News. I'm up coding one Friday night (my girlfriend was in Guatemala at the time; I'm not THAT much of a nerd) and send out this tweet:

eyeseast: The little journalists' toolkit I mentioned yesterday is coming together. A few good folks are testing it now. Going to try adding comments.
Oct 11, 2008 05:37 AM GMT

A few minutes later, this direct message appears in my inbox:

NewsHourHowdy there. We're digging the toolkit for journos. Any chance you'd be interested in this opening we have? http://twurl.nl/yu0zho10:48 PM Oct 10th, 2008

After recovering from a brief state of shock, I fire off a resume with a link to my portfolio and a few other projects.

Skip ahead. Barack Obama is elected president. Thanksgiving happens.

Editors from the Online NewsHour call. We chat about open source projects and new ways to do journalism. We make fun of CNN's election night holograms. Damn, I think, this sounds like a fun place to work. They fly me to DC to meet the whole team. I continue to think this could be a very cool place to work.

Christmas happens. I build a prototype timeline application and launch Tools for News.

An editor from the Newshour calls the first week of January to offer me the job. I start Feb. 2 (one week from today). Holy crap, I'm moving to DC. My job involves Django, data and generally building cool shit.

Big lingering question: Now that Twitter has gotten me a job, am I obligated to no longer make fun of it, or to make fun of it more.

Dag Chris, from China to the Bay Area to DC -- and all driven a great deal via making yourself visible and approachable on-line. I'm impressed - congrats! If you wish to escape DC and visit Charlottesville, VA check in with me.

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